EU AI Act
European Union Artificial Intelligence Act
The world's first comprehensive AI law
The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) regulates AI by risk tier: a few uses are prohibited outright, high-risk systems carry heavy obligations, limited-risk systems owe transparency, and general-purpose AI models have their own duties. It applies to providers and deployers placing AI on the EU market — or whose AI output is used in the EU — even if the company sits outside Europe.
Who must comply with EU AI Act?
Any organization that develops, sells, or uses an AI system in the EU, or whose AI output reaches people in the EU — including Canadian and US companies. Obligations scale with the system's risk tier; high-risk and general-purpose AI carry the most.
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Key obligations under EU AI Act
Risk classification
Determine each AI system's tier — prohibited (Art. 5), high-risk (Annex III), limited (Art. 50), minimal, or GPAI (Art. 53+). The tier drives everything else.
Risk management & data governance
High-risk systems need a continuous risk-management process (Art. 9) and training/validation data that is relevant, representative, and bias-checked (Art. 10).
Technical documentation
Maintain Annex IV technical documentation and automatic logs that demonstrate conformity and enable traceability (Art. 11–12).
Human oversight
Design high-risk systems so a person can understand, intervene in, and override their output (Art. 14).
Transparency
Tell people when they interact with an AI system and label AI-generated or manipulated content / deepfakes (Art. 50).
Conformity & registration
High-risk systems require a conformity assessment, an EU declaration of conformity, CE marking, and registration in the EU database (Art. 43–49).
Penalties & enforcement
Up to €35M / 7% for prohibited practices; €15M / 3% for most other breaches; €7.5M / 1% for supplying incorrect information.
Frameworks that often overlap with EU AI Act
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